The best is always elusive. Most of us are very happy with something that is truly very, very good.

IOW, most decent soundcards and the DACs therein will be more than good enough; you dont have to spend hundreds of pounds, by any means. High-end products claiming to be the best often are simply lying or are at least referring to slight theoretical increases in quality that would never be audible to a human anyway.

Well, thats what I meant by theoretical, but perhaps its not the right word. I dont mean that extra quality that may or may not be audible isnt good, but it isnt always worth the premium that some people expect buyers to pay for it.

interesting discussion. I remember posting on this forum over 4 years ago, when I first joined, a statement along the lines of - "the line-out on my laptop seems to give the best sound quality". At the time, I didn't realise how much controversy this statement would later cause.

I agree with the general concessions so far, in that the best is usually just very very good to your ears.

I've gone through many headphone amps, from tube, to hybrid, and solid state. I still keep a battery powered solid state one around but mostly to act as an external volume control / extension lead for my headphones. Predominantly, I still listen via the built-in line-out port of a laptop or digital music player and to me this sounds very very good.

I do not see how measured improvements are "theoretical". Just because these differences are not audible under normal circumstances doesn't mean they're not there.

Just nitpicking, but "theoretical increase in quality" is correct IMO, when quality is defined with reference to listening: a real improvement in measurable quantity becomes a theoretical one in quality, if results as not perceivable by a listener.

What exasperate me, is all the talk about "synergy" between headphones and source.As if we were talking of different wines, and you have to find the right source with right attributes for your headphone (lot of literature regarding how good are each source, it's mind blowing).Oh , and I often read that some headphones "scale up", with better sources (often it means, more expensive).I've just read a recommendation at headfi for the DNA stratus to use with the hd800.Only ... 2300$, for a tube amp that probably colors the sound.

Its not really possible to give a good answer to the questions without know the headphones.

My Headphones are HD280 Pro.

And well, about the internal noise thing from other components. Thatīs why i was considering DAC and an Amplifier.

There's no reason other than competence issues that would require that the DAC and the headphone amp has to be in separate boxes. In fact, putting them in separate boxes can create interfacing problems.

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But i currently canīt hear noise from internal components.

Good and no surprise.

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I know that one PC i had, had some terrible noise from components if i used the Front Panel. I could here specific noise when i did stuff, like moving the mouse and stuff like that.

The noises you heard may not have actually been electrical noise of the kind we've been talking about. It could be bus contention problems. I've had that problem as well, but on occasions I've corrected it by non-electrical means.

I do not see how measured improvements are "theoretical". Just because these differences are not audible under normal circumstances doesn't mean they're not there.

But measured improvements mean nothing if I can't hear them. As far as my ears/brain are concerned in this situation there is no improvement.

I presume you mean to say: "But measured improvements mean nothing to me if I can't hear them."

The counterpoint is that distortion and noise can build up gradually in an audio system, and so performance that exceeds the limit of hearing can be justified for each comonent on the ground that the better performance is required so that the entire ensemble of components performs without audible problems.

This gets us into discussion what the weakest links are, which is often a profitable discussion.

Its not really possible to give a good answer to the questions without know the headphones.

My Headphones are HD280 Pro.

And well, about the internal noise thing from other components. Thatīs why i was considering DAC and an Amplifier.But i currently canīt hear noise from internal components.

Those aren't very hard to drive headphones, and a highend amp is kind of overkill for them. Do you hear noise with the onboard? If not, I probably wouldn't bother. A quality amp might be better then an average on board sound card with these headphones, but you'll probably have to work to notice the difference.

I presume you mean to say: "But measured improvements mean nothing to me if I can't hear them."

The counterpoint is that distortion and noise can build up gradually in an audio system, and so performance that exceeds the limit of hearing can be justified for each comonent on the ground that the better performance is required so that the entire ensemble of components performs without audible problems.

This gets us into discussion what the weakest links are, which is often a profitable discussion.

Yep, that's really what I was meaning, if there is a measured improvement in the overall system but I can't hear it then it doesn't matter to me.

Can they be used for High Grade Microphones aswell, or is that Separate?

The mic input on a regular soundcard is the wrong interface for a good studio/performance microphone. The input is high-impedance unbalanced (2-wire), and often the soundcard's preamp is poor quality (i.e. noisy).

Good microphones are low-impedance balanced (3-wire) with XLR Connectors. In addition, studio condenser microphones need 48V phantom power (provided by the preamp/interface).

Or. you can get a "studio quality" USB microphone . These are economical and convenient, but you can't generally record from more than one "device" at a time, so if you want to record stereo or multitrack this is not the best solution (although you can find stereo USB mics).

The line-input on many regular soundcards is often adequate. So, another solution is to use a preamp or mixer (with mic inputs) and connect the line-output from the preamp/mixer to line-in on your souncard. (Most laptops don't have a line-input).

Yes, thatīs what i will be buying later some time. A Studio Microphone and a Amp with the XLR, as thatīs the way to go.But that does not have much to do with Headphone Amps, which is why i ended up asking for what you people use for that:)

I currently use an USB microphone, it works very good, but it got noise from the DAC, so itīs not "Studio" quality, i donīt really think any USB is that though.